2017

Spin-offs! When a show is so successful is no surprise that other authors will try to explore different stories in the set of alternative mangas or light novels. What is rare is that one of those spin-offs also get an Anime adaptation. This time we will be talking about three recent examples of spin-off shows of successful series that never got any more seasons. I know there are longer running franchises like Gundam which has expanded universes and parallel shows but for the sake of brevity I’ll omit them this time.
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It’s been awhile since I talked about an old show, it does not mean that this section of the blog is forgotten, it is difficult to find some shows I want to talk about they never got a proper release or the ones that were available went down a long time ago. I was looking for this movie since I heard about it five years ago, it eluded me since
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The air is filled with the aroma of pumpkin and Christmas decorations, which means the Fall season is here. As part of this ongoing series, I’m going to list the shows I picked up, those that are walking on a tight rope and the ones that are not even worthy to look past the third episode. Previously stated, I will include Anime that originally aired during the last season but will continue in this one.
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Summer is over, and the best shows have been selected already but in every season there is always a hidden gem or turd that needs to be exposed and talked about. A ride as wild as Samurai Flamenco, prepare your cross and prayers because it is going to get weird. Hidden behind a synopsis that downplays the craziness this show carries and with a source material mostly unknown until the
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After a long and painful quest, the time has arrived to present what show got to be the best of the season, in my opinion. In a season that fell flat and lacked variety, one show rose above all by outdoing all expectations and prejudgments you could have about it. Never judge a banana by its peel. A show that does not have the right to be as funny as
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The rundown for the best shows of the Summer season continues. As I said before, I’ll take in consideration shows that started on a previous season but ended in the next one. Seems fair for shows with two-cours because many of them decay during the last episodes (Talking to you Re:Creators). Today we will be talking about the second season of a show that by all means could be your
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Time goes by, and so the seasons. This summer was probably one of the first times where I ended up watching less shows than I expected. It is not to blame the selection but there was not much to pick my interests. But among all those shows, three ranked on top, shows that left me asking for more each week. Some of them were surprises, but those are the kind
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Sorry for the delay with other reviews but I have been busy with other larger reviews than I’m preparing for later. Spookfest will be back next week, just in time for October. But now let’s talk about the anime industry taking risks. With the recent news of Kadokawa dumping the creative team behind the unlikely success of “Kemono Friends” and Madhouse passing the opportunity to do another season of One
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Boo! The day has come to review more horror anime. Remember that until Halloween night this blog will feature a bi-weekly review of a horror show and hopefully find something that is worth recommending. Although first a word about this article: Given the narrative of this show it would be almost impossible to not spoil something about it. If you don’t like spoilers, you have been warned. Moving on, today
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Welcome back to Spookfest, a bi-weekly review until Halloween night of horror/terror anime and why they suck (or not). The selection for horror manga is vast and some authors excel on this genre, one of them is Junji Ito, author of famous works like “Cat Diary: Yon & Muu” and “The Enigma of Amigara Fault” his works rarely made it to an adaptation, this time we will be reviewing one
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Happy Halloween, or that is what I would say if this were October 31st. But following modern traditions of celebrating holidays two or three months before they happen, a new section for this blog has arrived. From here to Halloween night, I’ll be reviewing every two weeks horror anime and manga. I have expressed before that horror/terror are one of the most difficult genres to translate to Anime. While there
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Superhero movies and shows are the big thing now, you can’t escape them they are everywhere and it’s not weird that given its popularity, some of it could pour over the Anime world. This season we got a show created by Stan Lee and directed by the creator of Mushishi, it is something, to say the least. But this was not the first time the cameo himself wanted to break
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The temperatures are rising, which means the summer season is finally here. And surprisingly enough the selection of shows available this season is vast. We got at least four high school life with a twist shows and apparently three superhero shows too, only one of them does not suck or have influence from Western animation (Looking at you Stan Lee). This time will be different given that some of the shows that I’ll present here, to the moment of this publication, have not reached a third episode but if something changes between this article and the next episode, I’ll update it accordingly.
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Here we are, at the end of the season, I already wrote about the best Spring had to offer, but not everything is as wonderful and lasting as many of the shows I reviewed. There are times when an Anime is so bad that you are left wondering why? Who thought this was a good idea? And to be fair, I will not be picking apart this show if it
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It’s finally here, among all the shows aired this season only one could reach the top and be the best. While the show started on the Winter season, it ended this week so it’s fair to compare it with others. Incidentally, the show was announced after the ending of one of my favorite shows from last year and since then I have been hyped and hoping the show could live
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Two months ago I reviewed a show that I really liked and invited you to do same given a new instance of Saekano was near. Now that that is over, it was no surprise that the continuation of Aki’ story of love, ideals and meta commentary was among my top three shows for the Spring season. Before jumping to the review, I should say I had some trouble picking it
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With only one week of the Spring season left, I think I’m ready to announce my top three pick for best shows of the season. It must be said that this season had not as many good shows as the previous one, the majority of them were just OK. There’s also the fact that two shows I really enjoyed are two-cour which means I can not picked them for these
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If you have read some of my previous articles you might have noticed that one of my favorite genres is comedy. And it is not a surprise that is a genre that translates very well into anime. The freedom given by 2D animation lets you create worlds and situations that might not be available on a 3D production (if it’s not a practical effect or green screen). But not all anime comedies are created as equal, those that succeed to become classics have something special that made them rise above the others even if they were not financially successful or popular during its airing time.
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The religious and spiritual aspects of Japanese society in anime are mostly used by writers who borrowed them indiscriminately to give some of sort of meaning and deepness to their stories. While there’s nothing wrong with that, it does not take advantage of the richness and vast history behind it. But not all shows are guilty, and today we will be talking about one that tried and let’s see if
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The aesthetics of the 80s cyberpunk anime is probably one of the most memorable things of this era. And it’s a shame that this style has not found a revival in our times. The gritty decadence of a modern society contrasted between an impoverished population and the advantages of technology is rare to see now. Psycho Pass is probably the last show to pull this out. But today we will
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This blog has survived long enough to talk about a new season, and it comes as a surprise. Last season was filled with good shows, I can say that I didn’t hate anything I saw until the end. Even the mediocre ones gave something to talk about. But now it’s time to give a quick look to the shows I picked to follow this season, you will notice there are less than the previous one.
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Given that the next season of this anime is coming up soon, I decided to revisit Saekano and compare if it was as good as I remembered. Two years have past since Saenai Heroine no Sodateka aired and from that moment along I have been expecting a continuation of this story. There are a lot of good shows that never got another chance (Love Lab, Nozaki-kun, Mikakunin, etc.) and I
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Well, if the season is over and I already picked my three favorite anime, why do another review? That was my first thought but these shows need an article for themselves, because it’s rare when you have the polar opposite in two shows that aired the same season. They deserve to be talked about because both are “special” in their own way. Love stories are plenty and while not my cup of tea, I watched these in its entirety.
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The time has come to reveal my pick for best show of the Winter season. I’ll admit it came as a surprise and while it was one of the shows I wanted to see I did not expect to be this good. The premise alone sounded bizarre but it was worthy. Bear in mind that I have not read the source material, I’m just referring solely to the adaptation. This is not my last review of the season so expect another article soon.
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I’m going to pause a moment my reviews to talk about my experience with GNU Social since I joined one year ago. Given the current state of affairs I suppose I can share my experience being here. I was very active on Twitter before I came here, it become my main source for news and sharing things. I met a lot of people who I engaged and befriend. But as time past by I grew dissatisfied of the polarization I was seeing, formation of secret cliques and some sort of mob mentality that challenge any opinion outside of the status quo.
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Continuing with these series of reviews of the Winter season now we reach the second place. I must say I was surprised not to give Demi-chan wa Kataritai the first place, and well, the name of the site does not help to cover my bias towards the show but it was a difficult decision to make, the other show was slightly better. This doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy Demi-chan and I’ll be writing plenty about why it was one of the best shows last season.
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Finally the Winter season is over and now it’s time to pick the best shows that aired during these months. I am going to review separately my top three anime I saw this season. As part of these reviews I’m not going to dive only on the show but also what made them good in the first place. I will begin with the third place that goes to the second season of Konosuba and its place as one of the greatest parodies (at least in the anime world) ever made.
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A Visual novel allows the author to create an interactive story that lets the audience blend with it. Many of these make the jump from the game to the TV. Some of them with great success like Steins;Gate or Amagami SS. Others, well, they are just forgotten. And who can blame the audience? There are a ton of them. Today we’ll talk about one of those overlooked VN adaptations which
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Have you heard of Gosick? It is a 2011 light novel which portrays a young man and his fateful encounter with a girl who loves rare books, they get involved in mystery cases and create bonds with different people and themselves. I recommend that show. Sadly, I will not be talking about it. Instead, I am going to review another light novel adaptation that also occurred in 2011, a story
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Studios today play safely when it comes to adaptations and those who try to deviate from the formula often times fail (Kuma Miko is a recent example). But back in the day we had more shows that dare to change the tone from the story of the original source. And today we will talk about a rather controversial adaptation of a cute manga that went to some places thanks to
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Spiritual successors are not rare in the world of anime, and I was really looking forward for Seiren, I thought it was going to be the successor of Amagami SS, it’s been a while since we had an omnibus-format romantic show and Amagami SS is one of my favorite anime. Alas, that was not the case. I dropped Seiren and felt disappointed of what we got. But then I remembered
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Another day, another manga. While the adaptation of this work is currently airing and I have professed my strong liking of the show before, I mean, look at the logo of this site or the 404 page. I am someone who thinks that the original work and the adaptation should stand on its own and there are times where an anime works better than its source. (I’m looking at you
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Classic anime is timeless, be the original Macross, Sailor Moon or the works of Ozamu Tezuka represent the foundation where most of the recent media comes from, but it’s important not to forget other works from the past, and so, the purpose of this new section: Old’s Cool. Here I’ll review shows from the 70s to 90s (if it’s available) and hopefully get more people to watch them. Inaugurating this
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Literature will also have a place in this blog, it does not matter if it is a manga, light novel or a regular novel, reviews will also be available for them. In the case of manga or light novels it will be an ongoing review as the volumes are available in English. Other restrictions may apply but now it’s time to inaugurate this section with a colorful manga that got
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As the seasons pass by, it becomes difficult to sort what I liked or not. Be one of a kind experience, finding the 2D way or whatever the reason might be, it’s always useful to revisit them to see if those shows still hold solid or the power of nostalgia goggles is really powerful. That’s why I bring another section to the blog where I review shows that I enjoyed
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Welcome to First Impression, a seasonal article where I share my current opinion about shows I picked up each season, the ones I dropped and those who are treading on thin ice. It also works as a comparison point to the future final verdict of this season. Following my criteria, I’ve only watched three episodes of each shows. Opinions might change in the future, if so the post will be edited accordingly.
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A year does not come without its downs and 2016 had a bunch of shows that sucked or simply disappointed the audience. I’ll be talking about three of the worst shows I got to see last year. Keep in mind that my criteria does not include shows that were dropped. As disclosure, my criteria to drop shows is the following:
After three episodes, it does not get interesting. Being able to predict at least 50% of the next episode.
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Welcome to the first entry of this blog and also the ceremony of the first “Anime was a mistake” Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence in Animation. While many people despise 2016, it was a marvelous year for Anime. This year alone we got not one but four trapped in another world shows. It was also a great year for groundbreaking series like the first Light Novel adaptation that sucked more than Infinite Stratos.
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